Function editFileInEditor

source code/utils/promptEditor.ts:33–103

(filePath: string)

// sync IO: called from sync context (React components, sync command handlers)
export function editFileInEditor(filePath: string): EditorResult {
  const fs = getFsImplementation()
  const inkInstance = instances.get(process.stdout)
  if (!inkInstance) {
    throw new Error('Ink instance not found - cannot pause rendering')
  }

  const editor = getExternalEditor()
  if (!editor) {
    return { content: null }
  }

  try {
    fs.statSync(filePath)
  } catch {
    return { content: null }
  }

  const useAlternateScreen = !isGuiEditor(editor)

  if (useAlternateScreen) {
    // Terminal editors (vi, nano, etc.) take over the terminal. Delegate to
    // Ink's alt-screen-aware handoff so fullscreen mode (where <AlternateScreen>
    // already entered alt screen) doesn't get knocked back to the main buffer
    // by a hardcoded ?1049l. enterAlternateScreen() internally calls pause()
    // and suspendStdin(); exitAlternateScreen() undoes both and resets frame
    // state so the next render writes from scratch.
    inkInstance.enterAlternateScreen()
  } else {
    // GUI editors (code, subl, etc.) open in a separate window — just pause
    // Ink and release stdin while they're open.
    inkInstance.pause()
    inkInstance.suspendStdin()
  }

  try {
    // Use override command if available, otherwise use the editor as-is
    const editorCommand = EDITOR_OVERRIDES[editor] ?? editor
    execSync_DEPRECATED(`${editorCommand} "${filePath}"`, {
      stdio: 'inherit',
    })

    // Read the edited content
    const editedContent = fs.readFileSync(filePath, { encoding: 'utf-8' })
    return { content: editedContent }
  } catch (err) {
    if (
      typeof err === 'object' &&
      err !== null &&
      'status' in err &&
      typeof (err as { status: unknown }).status === 'number'
    ) {
      const status = (err as { status: number }).status
      if (status !== 0) {
        const editorName = toIDEDisplayName(editor)
        return {
          content: null,
          error: `${editorName} exited with code ${status}`,